


drivers ed

by AlmondRose



Category: Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Cars, Driving, Gen, Humor, im lying, its sad, this is funny !!!!!!!!!!!!! not sad at all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! its not sad!!!!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-19
Updated: 2018-03-19
Packaged: 2019-04-04 20:25:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,319
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14028075
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlmondRose/pseuds/AlmondRose
Summary: steph has a strange encounter in the wayne manor kitchen while she's sipping her juice box. dick just wants to be updated when his frikin' dad adopts more kids, like, come ON bruce.





	drivers ed

Steph has been Robin for a grand total of two and a half days when she meets him. 

 

Well, she hasn’t really been Robin, since she doesn’t have a costume yet and Bruce still calls her  _ Stephanie  _ and Steph doesn’t think Bruce likes her very much, but he said she  _ could  _ be Robin and it’s been two and a half days since then. 

 

Anyway, Steph’s in the kitchen at Wayne Manor, eating a peanut butter sandwich and sipping on a juice box. Why Alfred has either of those in his cupboard Steph doesn’t know, but she’s not complaining. 

 

She hears footsteps and keeps eating her sandwich, assuming it’s Alfred, until the chair next to her squeaks and someone sits down. Steph turns to look at the person, mid-bite. 

 

He has dark hair and blue eyes, like Bruce, except he’s probably half Bruce’s age. 

 

They stare at each other for a long minute. 

 

“Okay,” the man says, after a minute. “I’ll bite. Who the heck are you?”

 

“Who the heck are  _ you?”  _ Steph asks, swallowing her bite of sandwich. 

 

“Dick Grayson?” the guy says. “Bruce’s son? I used to live here?”

 

“Oh,” Steph says, and she turns and looks at her plate. 

 

She’s suddenly and painfully aware of her current costumed identity, and his first one. 

 

“So?” Dick prods. “Who are you?”

 

“My name’s Steph,” she says, turning back to look at him. “I’ve never lived here. I’m, um, training.”

 

“Okay,” Dick says, suspiciously. “Steph. Stephanie? Stephanie, um, um.”

 

“Brown,” Steph supplies. 

 

“Right,” Dick says, and realization lights in his eyes.  “Cluemaster.”

 

“Can you  _ not?”  _ Steph says, sourly. 

 

“Sorry, just trying to make connections. Spoiler, right?” 

 

“Yeah,” Steph says. She turns back to her sandwich. “What’re you doing here? I thought you lived in Bludhaven.”

 

“I do,” Dick says. “But I wanted to check up on Timmers, and then I thought I should see Bruce, so. Here I am.”

 

Right. Of course. He’d heard about Tim quitting Robin. There’s no way he knows that Steph’s Robin. Steph lets herself feel bitter for all of about two seconds before Dick starts talking again.

 

“So, kid, how long’ve you been in the game for?”

 

“Since I was thirteen,” Steph says. 

 

“And how old are you now?”

 

“Fifteen,” Steph says. Dick gives an impressed whistle. 

 

“So can you drive yet?”

 

Steph shrugs. 

 

“I’ve got my permit, but nobody’s ever gonna teach me how. My dad’s in jail and my mom’s in rehab and Bruce is, um, busy.”

 

There’s a long, awkward pause before Dick says, “Alfred could teach you.”

 

“Don’t wanna bother him,” Steph says. “I was gonna make Tim teach me, but. Um.”

 

“Yeah,” Dick says, then he hops off the seat. “Okay, kid, finish that juice box and get up.”

 

“What?” Steph asks, and Dick says, “Come on.”

 

Steph gets off the stool and follows him, mostly curious. She knows she can’t take him in a fight but she doesn’t really think that Nightwing’s gonna attack her. 

 

He leads her out to the garage and Steph blinks. 

 

“What are we doing?” she asks, and Dick says, “I’m gonna teach you how to drive.”

 

“Really?” Steph asks, bouncing on her toes. 

 

“Yeah,” Dick says, and he grabs some keys off of the wall. They walk past Bruce’s first limo, and his second one, and past the Mustang, and the three convertibles, and all his other fancy cars, and to a small one at the very end of the line. 

 

“Is this yours?” Steph asks, because it very obviously doesn’t fit in with the others.

 

“Nah,” Dick says. “I took my bike. This is the car Bruce bought when  _ I  _ turned fifteen, so he could teach me to drive. I think he was teaching Ja--never mind. But it should still work.”

 

“Wow,” Steph says, and she touches the hood. The car is nothing fancy, but Steph’s excited to drive it. Dick tosses her the keys and Steph grins. 

 

She slides in the driver’s seat and Dick shows her how to move the seat up so she can reach the pedals, then she starts the car and while her foot is still on the break pedal Dick says, “Confession: I’ve never taught anyone how to drive before.”

 

“I’ve never been taught to drive,” Steph says, and Dick laughs before telling her to put the car in reverse and how to back out. 

 

\----

 

They don’t really go anywhere, just drive down the long empty road between the city and the Manor, then they drive back. Steph has lots and lots of fun and Dick says her parking job is good on the first try and Steph grins. 

 

Dick leans over and ruffles her hair and says, “You’re a good student.”

 

“You’re a good teacher,” Steph shoots back, then she pauses. “Um. I have something to tell you.”

 

“Everything okay?”

 

Steph takes a deep breath. 

 

“I’m in training to be Robin,” she says in one breath, then she freezes, expecting Dick to yell at her. “Please don’t be mad.”

 

“I’m….not,” Dick says after a second. “Hey,” he says, and he moves her face to look at him. “Don’t worry, okay, little bird? I don’t mind. I think you’ll be a great Robin.”

 

“Really? Even though it’s so soon after Tim and I’m a girl and my dad is a villian and I didn’t ask you first and--”

 

“And yeah, but your dad doesn’t define you and Tim made his own choice and Robin changes, okay, Steph? No two Robins have been the same, so why should being a boy or girl make any difference? You--you know what, Stephanie Brown? I bet you’ll be the best Robin yet.”

 

Steph tries to pretend like she’s not crying, but it doesn’t work very well. 

 

“Let’s get out of this car,” Dick says, and after they do, Dick hugs her. 

 

He smells like Old Spice and something else Steph can’t identify, and she squeezes him tight.

 

Dick chokes out a laugh and says, “Wanna go  _ downstairs  _ and wait for the big bad bat?” 

 

“Could we spar, maybe?” Steph asks. 

 

“It would be an honor,” Dick says, and Steph grins at him, and he grins back, and they go down to the cave, chattering and laughing all the way. 

 

\----

 

Less than four months later, Dick finds himself in a tiny Gotham cemetery. He’s hyperaware of his brother’s grave, staring at him from across the lot, but Dick’s not here for him. 

 

The grave in front of him is fresh, and Dick stares at her name, carved in the stone. 

 

“You were too young,” Dick whispers, kneeling in front of the stone. 

 

He didn’t even know her that well, Dick thinks. He knew she stayed at Wayne Manor while her mother was in rehab, and he knew she was desperate to prove herself different from her dad. He knew that being Robin meant so much to her, maybe even more than it meant to him. He lays purple carnations on the ground in front of her grave, and he hesitates before puts a toy car in front of the flowers. 

 

Nobody would know what it meant, but he would. 

 

Dick gets up and walks out of the graveyard and into his car, and he sits behind the wheel and tries to leave. 

 

He can’t. 

 

Nobody even knew that Dick had met Steph outside of that day in the cave. Dick doubts Bruce knows a thing about Steph’s ability to drive. 

 

It had only been an afternoon, but Dick knows he’ll remember forever. 

 

_ She hadn’t even been sixteen.  _

 

Dick hadn’t cried, not yet, but it’s hard not to, while he’s sitting in a car about to drive, and Stephanie had barely known how. 

 

And now she’ll never learn fully, and Dick’ll never get to continue to teach her, and Dick cries, in the front seat of his car, and he tells himself to try to avoid cars, from now on. 

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading!! comments & kudos always appreciated!


End file.
